The 2017 Tri-Cities tournament was hosted here over the last weekend as part of a much bigger event of arts and sports called WABX to the MAX. It was a great weekend of sport, where our team had their first true opportunity to face some APAC competition in a tournament situation. This was the first time we have come together as a team, with highlight performances coming from Joose Harju, Eerik Harju, CC Olsen, Sandy Olsen and Sweder Jacobs.

Game 1 vs. ISB:

We opened the match playing our local rival ISB. The tension was high as the boys wanted to make-up for the draw earlier in the season and begin to show how they can play. The game started with us falling into some disorganized play, leading to a goal from ISB. This raised the stakes for the boys, feeling the pressure of hosting a tournament, and we answered quickly with a goal from Sandy Olsen. Towards the end of the 2nd half Sweder Jacobs opened his scoring record for the season with a beautiful shot that put us into the lead. We would use the rest of the game to continue building and developing our passing game, making big leaps forward in holding possession and creating attacking opportunities. This game also saw a welcomed return from 2 injured players – Buni and Sam – who both had a positive impact on the game.

The second game on Friday came after a very long wait. We were fortunate to see AISG play earlier and our team talk before the game focused on ways to maximize our impact against their organization and style of play. The game was hard fought, but we began to see our passing game develop much better than in any previous games. The confidence of the team was on the rise and we maintained possession and dictated the play throughout much of the game. The AISG keeper was outstanding, stopping several excellent shots from both close and long ranger; however, he couldn’t stop a potential goal of the season from Sweder Jacobs. Coming from a corner only minutes after the start of the 2nd half Joose Harju took the cross off his chest, passing to Sweder, who turned and volleyed a world-class finish to the top corner off his right foot. It is a goal that needs to be seen to be believed, so please take a look at the footage linked here.

The final round-robin game had us facing Shanghai American School Pudong very early on Saturday morning. We fielded a smaller squad, with a couple players out due to school commitments and injury. Using our previous experience against DCB playing with a similar squad we had a line-up we were confident to be successful against a well-organized SASPD team. This was the first time we began to see our possession game really take shape, dominating possession for long periods of time and forcing SASPD to play out of their comfort zone. The increased pressure from possession resulted in an early goal from Cam Grigg, opening his account for the season, along with a 2nd half goal from CC Olsen as he continues to lead by example. The final 2-1 score line was not an indicator of the number of scoring opportunities we had and did not capitalize on.

After going undefeated through the tournament our confidence was growing and new players were beginning to see how to work within our system. After a very focused and intense tactical talk before the game some key challenges were identified. With these ideas in mind we took the field in our first final of the year. We started to press the game early, using our outside midfielders effectively to support our striker, with more attacking opportunities coming in the opening 15 minutes than we had generated throughout the entire season. The passing through the defense and movement of the mid-field wreaked havoc with the AISG defense who were pulled apart at the seams as we opened the scoring in the 22nd minute of the first half with goals from Joose Harju, CC Olsen and Buni Sozer in the span of 5 minutes. Throughout the rest of the game we continued to dominate possession, culminating in Amory Gamet getting his first goal of the year from high in the penalty area.

The 2017 Tri-Cities tournament was hosted here over the last weekend as part of a much bigger event of arts and sports called WABX to the MAX. It was a great weekend of sport, where our team had their first true opportunity to face some APAC competition in a tournament situation. This was the first time we have come together as a team, with highlight performances coming from Joose Harju, Eerik Harju, CC Olsen, Sandy Olsen and Sweder Jacobs.

Game 1 vs. ISB:

We opened the match playing our local rival ISB. The tension was high as the boys wanted to make-up for the draw earlier in the season and begin to show how they can play. The game started with us falling into some disorganized play, leading to a goal from ISB. This raised the stakes for the boys, feeling the pressure of hosting a tournament, and we answered quickly with a goal from Sandy Olsen. Towards the end of the 2nd half Sweder Jacobs opened his scoring record for the season with a beautiful shot that put us into the lead. We would use the rest of the game to continue building and developing our passing game, making big leaps forward in holding possession and creating attacking opportunities. This game also saw a welcomed return from 2 injured players – Buni and Sam – who both had a positive impact on the game.

The second game on Friday came after a very long wait. We were fortunate to see AISG play earlier and our team talk before the game focused on ways to maximize our impact against their organization and style of play. The game was hard fought, but we began to see our passing game develop much better than in any previous games. The confidence of the team was on the rise and we maintained possession and dictated the play throughout much of the game. The AISG keeper was outstanding, stopping several excellent shots from both close and long ranger; however, he couldn’t stop a potential goal of the season from Sweder Jacobs. Coming from a corner only minutes after the start of the 2nd half Joose Harju took the cross off his chest, passing to Sweder, who turned and volleyed a world-class finish to the top corner off his right foot. It is a goal that needs to be seen to be believed, so please take a look at the footage linked here.

The final round-robin game had us facing Shanghai American School Pudong very early on Saturday morning. We fielded a smaller squad, with a couple players out due to school commitments and injury. Using our previous experience against DCB playing with a similar squad we had a line-up we were confident to be successful against a well-organized SASPD team. This was the first time we began to see our possession game really take shape, dominating possession for long periods of time and forcing SASPD to play out of their comfort zone. The increased pressure from possession resulted in an early goal from Cam Grigg, opening his account for the season, along with a 2nd half goal from CC Olsen as he continues to lead by example. The final 2-1 score line was not an indicator of the number of scoring opportunities we had and did not capitalize on.

After going undefeated through the tournament our confidence was growing and new players were beginning to see how to work within our system. After a very focused and intense tactical talk before the game some key challenges were identified. With these ideas in mind we took the field in our first final of the year. We started to press the game early, using our outside midfielders effectively to support our striker, with more attacking opportunities coming in the opening 15 minutes than we had generated throughout the entire season. The passing through the defense and movement of the mid-field wreaked havoc with the AISG defense who were pulled apart at the seams as we opened the scoring in the 22nd minute of the first half with goals from Joose Harju, CC Olsen and Buni Sozer in the span of 5 minutes. Throughout the rest of the game we continued to dominate possession, culminating in Amory Gamet getting his first goal of the year from high in the penalty area.